E-grāmata: Joy of Sets: A Short History of the Television

Television, reveals cultural historian Chris Horrocks in this compact chronicle, has tangled roots. The scientific advances of inventor John Logie Baird, broadcast pioneer Paul Nipkow and Karl Braun, inventor of the cathode-ray tube, are only part of the story. A slew of Victorian novels featured visual portals conquering time and space, such as the varzeo in Ismar Thiusens The Diothas (1883). Along with sets, from Bairds 1928 Noahs Ark televisor to todays ultra-thin screens, Horrocks examines the technologys military uses, the ethical furore over content, and its uses as a symbol in art, film and literature * Nature * The television set, ubiquitous but often overlooked, takes centre stage in Chris Horrocks book. He offers a glimpse into how television sets developed from the meeting between technology and culture, becoming both familiar and alien objects in our lives. He asks that we look more closely at them and, in doing so, see them afresh . . . The Joy of Sets is a wide-ranging and well-researched book, which provides an unconventional perspective on TV . . . The ideas raised about the ends of the television set could spark new debates on the role the internet may play in our relationship with TV and whether new streaming platforms for receiving content will fundamentally alter the television sets material form -- Emily Rees * Times Higher Education * [ This] study brilliantly investigates the impact of the remote control and the way in which TV was portrayed sometimes menacingly in art film and literature . . . the book is beautifully illustrated, containing many fine colour pictures of TV sets from the 1920s to the present day. There are comprehensive notes and the title benefits unlike similar publications in this under researched field from a thorough, six-page, bibliography. However, the real strength of this title is that it encourages the reader to think about the television set as an object of popular material culture and an inspiration for art as well as a mere technical receiver of images * Radio User magazine * The Joy of Sets: A Short History of the Television hides a useful survey history of the TV receiver behind a tongue-in-cheek title. With a strong British bias, this offers a breezy survey of receiver design, primarily in Britain and the U.S. over the last 80 years or so . . . This centers on the receiver as an art object, albeit a useful one. * Communication Booknotes Quarterly *